This is all leaving a really bad taste.
Strictly Come Dancing is supposed to be a dance competition in aid of a very deserving charity. Instead we have Judges who are biased, leering and quite rude in some cases (" you little sheffield ****" )
I cannot for the life of me come up with a reason for Jan's husband to say "Stay away from my family" why would he say that ?
Jan was over emotional yes, her performance wasn't the worst but certainly wasn't the best. We don't vote people out, we voted to save.
Is this petulance the reason for the loss of our happy go lucky Anton ? He really hasn't (IMO) been his jovial self. Maybe Jan is the Carol Vorderman of this series ???
All the back biting and sniping is very much like a school playground. I used to love watching the show for the dancing, now the real dancers and achievers are being over shadowed by the school yard tantrums.

I like Craig. Throughout the 4 series his comments and marking has been the most consistant, and he doesnt panda to these "celebrities" prima dona egos.

To be fair, Craig's comments this year have been far 'less harsh' than in previous years, I wonder if he's on medication some times.

BUT his marking does seem to be getting slightly more eccentric as the weeks go by.

I will say one thing about all the judges, this inconsistant marking being excused by 'We are all looking for different things' is getting a little tiresome, I almost wish if a judge marks so wildly out of sink with the rest they should have to justify themselves, especially, if they mark lower or Arlene starts letting her hormones do the marking again.

As has been said elsewhere, the judges don't have .5 of a mark to play with. It may well be that Craig thought her dance last week was "just" a 5 - a weak 5 - whereas this week it was a much stronger 5, but not good enough to be a 6.

When only the integers are available, of course any one number is going to cover a variation of achievement.

As Johanna says the other versions of SCD in other countries are equally as successful as the BBC's - without the ritual humiliation our celebs face from Arlene and Craig each week. It actually means something when Len or Bruno make a harsh comment as it really shows that there was a serious problem in the routing just performed (although after Bruno's little anti-Brendan outburst on Saturday maybe he needs watching!)

Holland Italy and the USA all have judging panels who can keep it nice - although Carrie Anne Inaba from the US DWTS can be a touche acidic at times - but she's a ballroom dancer so can talk from a position of knowledge.... but even she let Jerry Springer off lightly with some of his performances and she's considered to be the nasty one over there!

And it wouldn't have killed Craig to give her a 6 - she was considerably better - and in this sort of competition - half points are really surplus to requirements
Last edited by CaroUK : 06-11-2006 at 12:15

It might not have killed him, but she really didn't deserve a 6. She looked terrified while doing the dance and clung on.

I did feel sorry for Matt on Saturday, he felt accused him of a lack of commitment despite training 6 hours a day I think he said.

It's all got a bit silly now. What was once entertaining and fun has descended into a farce of play-acting, whingeing and petty arguments.

Jan needs to grow up. The only person who looked stupid was herself. It's a shame she couldn't have taken it in the spirit of things and accepted her defeat graciously. After all, it was the Judges and viewer votes in equal measure that sent her packing.

I agree that Jan may have been a bit too upset (she was never going to win anyway, and the point of Strictly is raising money for charity while doing something fun), but I also agree that if this was her personal best, her score should definitely also have been her personal best!
I don't understand how the judges manage to remain so arrogant and convinced that they're right, even though so many people disagree with them and agreed with Brendan! They bring in such a negative vibe to what should be a fun show. Of course they don't need to say something's good when it isn't (though they do), but giving Peter a 2 or saying Matt isn't even making an effort is just sad and doesn't do anyone any good.
To me the only think that's "got a bit silly" is still the judging...

But this is exactly what makes the show in Holland a bit boring. The jury is too nice! The lowest mark they ever gave was a five (I think), even for the worst dances! And they give nines and tens all the times, which is very very annoying. The judges in SCD are real characters, the show wouldn't be as much fun without them!

No what makes the show is Holland more boring is that it is in a slower pace than in the UK. In the UK the tempo of the show is much faster and I love that. I agree sometimes the votes in Holland are a bit too high, but if somebody has practised all week very hard why can't they get at least a 5? Like I said before this is an entertainment show, not a world championship. So people get more motivated when they see improvements in their votes and not through harsh comments of judges. And of course Bruce Forsythe is great! At least I think so anyway.

Johanna

Fair enough noviomagia - but what we have here is the judges trying too hard to be the "stars" of the show, when in fact they are the also rans.

The true stars of SCD are the celebs who sign up to the show for numerous personal reasons (raise profile - boost career etc) but at the end of the day to raise money for a worthwhile charity. Most of them are or have been at the top of their field and are usually experts in what they do as a day job.

As we can see - they put in hours of practice for the show with their professional - usually ON TOP of their already hectic schedules - and there is really no need for the panel (well 2 of them at least) to be quite so hurtful or scathing in making comments during the judging.

The celebs are NOT professional dancers who have been honing their skills for years - they have had a few weeks to learn how to dance - and most of them have done so (especially this year) to an amazing standard. The judges are being totally ridiculous if they think that they should be able to be up there with a professional dancer in such a short time.

As we saw last series - Craig was challenged by Dennis Taylor to go and try to play snooker - and despite quite a bit of practice, and tuition from several snooker champions, Craig made a complete pig's ear of it. You would have thought that being put through something like what the celebs have to put up with - he would at least realise that what they do is nothing short of amazing - but not a bit of it - he's as nasty as ever!

I don't want a schmaltzy waltzy panel who say that everything is lovely and wonderful when in some cases it quite clearly isn't - but there are ways of giving constructive criticism without resorting to nasty and personal remarks - and saying good things without backing comments up with marks to match.

I also want to see them marking fairly!

Ballroom dancing is an amazingly technical sport with set moves and techniques required for all the different dances - eg the notorious heel leads for the foxtrot, and the kicks and flicks in the jive. A foxtrot without heel leads is NOT a good foxtrot and despite a flashy performance, it should be marked down for lack of mastery of the techniques, not marked up for a fabulous performance.

Most competitions are marked on technique first and then on artistic merit so even in this one mark systewm - the judges should mentally be marking out of 5 for each element. That way a highly technical but dull routine could score a 6 (5/1) whilst a flashy but technically poor one should get a similar mark (1/5).

The problem here is that we have only ONE judge qualified and experienced enough to sit where he is whereas the other 3 are commenting on the performance aspects, which to my mind defeats the aim of the competition which is all about BALLROOM dancing - not West End musicals!

If the judges don't give lower marks than five, they range is very small isn't it? Terrible dances get a five, average dances an eight and all dances above average nines or tens! I don't like that at all. I do agree with you that the pace is very slow.

Why is everybody saying that harsh comments from the judges are somthing new this series.

I recall they kept telling Christopher Parker that he couldn't dance right up until he got into the final !

And even then!!!

Had they "kept it nice" and reasoned - he'd have lost the sympathy vote WELL before that stage and left the final to be contested by the 2 best dancers.....

I watched one of the australian shows and if you thought craig was bad, todd mckenney makes him look like a saint! search youtube for nikki webster tango and their routine (which I agree with him was all flash) he gave 1! I thought Craig was actually being nice to Jan!

I totally agree with you!

Johanna

It's ridiculous of Arlene to say that Matt has 'not enough commitment', when it's obvious that all the celebs are extremely committed (why wouldn't they be?). It seems more of a personal thing between the two of them than anything else.

She might just as well say 'I don't fancy you, goodbye.'

Every week, it's all about her sex life!
Last edited by winenroses : 06-11-2006 at 14:19

Don't want to get into an argument with anyone, and I do get very annoyed with the judges - but I find Len's 'you get 7 for turning up' just as annoying as Craig's scores. I agree with Brendon that the remarks are unnecessarily rude and disrespectful but that the order they end up in (which is the key thing) is usually pretty fair (apart from Peter's paso!). I actually think they are giving out too high marks too early in the season, so that people are crying for getting 5 - Jan had a decent score in comparison to most other series, but everyone was good on Saturday, so she ended up second to bottom. I don't think she deserved to be higher than Matt and Lilia, personally.

The trouble was somebody had to go and her behaviour implied that somebody else should have gone, that's what got me. That it wasn't fair that she'd gone. She was so desperate to be wonderful that she lost the spirit of the thing, and I hope she'll apologise on ITT tonight. I agree that Anton hasn't been his usual sparky self in the last couple of weeks. After all, she wouldn't like it if someone she'd impersonated pushed her around or said she was storing up bad Karma for taking the mick out of them - she's much more rude about people in her job than anyone on this has been to her.

I really don't naturally stick up for the judges on this show (as a James fan last year they used to make me scream) but Jan's behaviour was worse and I can't be sorry she's gone.

I think when she refers to commitment it's more about letting himself go with the dance instead of against it. It's not about how many hours you train, it's how much emotionally you're willing to give to dancing as well that makes it look good. Sorry about the airy-fairy response! I think Mat puts in the work but mentally isn't there. Oh and I personally think they should all train without mirrors...it seems too distracting for them. I used to think it odd that my teachers never had mirrors bar one small one...but it definately helps in making you feel less self conscience and much more trusting in your teacher.

Yes, I can see your point, and what you say is true of Matt, but perhaps it would have been better for Arlene not to have used the rather ambiguous word 'commitment'.

He took it well, anyway, although he's not one of my favourites. (It's a personal thing, haha.)

Prosecute? What for? You think the story is true? In The Sun?

Well if it's true, and not just massively exaggerated to sell newspapers, I'm sure Craig will find no shortage of witnesses to swear under oath that he was "screamed" at and "physically attacked".

Don't hold your breath.

I'm not going to take sides. Jan and Craig both get on my nerves!
Last edited by dillthedog : 06-11-2006 at 15:32

I don't think for one minute that Craig will prosecute, he wouldn't waste his time on a loud mouth and bully, but imho Mr and Mrs Hole should be ashamed of themselves, if only half of what the sun printed is true.

Yep I thought this too ~ I thought she was referring to the fact that he doesn't "commit" fully to the dance as he's dancing it: he learns all the right steps in the right order, but there's something holding him back, that self-consciousness which Bruno pointed out.

Me three. I think Len and Bruno put it better with the self conscious thing, Arlene didn't express herself very well...

What a surprise.... lol